Puzzle June 2019 OneShot Collection
by PaladinDragon
Summary: A collection of oneshots following the themes from the PuzzleJune 2019 list on Tumblr. Atem/Yugi


After the divorce was finalized, Yugi packed what was left of his belongings and got on a flight back home to Japan. The break up wasn't messy since both he and his now ex-wife had steadily been drifting apart over the last year. Most of the junk he had accumulated over the years had already been sold or shipped back to his old childhood home, over his grandfather's game shop. He had been sincere when he wished her and her new boyfriend happiness. They both knew she wasn't going to get that with Yugi, who was away too much at some tournament or spending too much time with Kaiba on some project or other.

He rubbed his eyes with the backs of his hands, hard. _Stop. It will be alright. _He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. At least he wouldn't be alone when he finally made it home. Jou would be there at least.

The flight took what felt like a lifetime, he wandered through airports on his layovers and slept as much as he could on the plane. It was well after midnight the next day when he finally stepped out of the last cab outside of the Kame Game Shop. Yugi looked up at it feeling a wave of nostalgia wash over him. It soothed some of the empty loneliness he had been struggling with and took away some of the exhaustion. Soon though, like always, his thoughts turned to puzzles he had solved in the room above him where a pale blue light flickered through the window.

His exhaustion returning full force, Yugi walked around the building to the back and used his key to open the door. The kitchen was exactly the way he remembered it, even though it had been almost two years since he had visited. He dropped his bag on the couch in the next room and stumbled through the doorway towards the steps. A sound made him stop dead.

Out of the shadows of the shop, through the doorway he had just walked by, stepped an apparition. The shadow took careful steps forward, almost silent, but a squeaky floorboard had given him away. Panic rising in his throat, Yugi slapped at the wall at the base of the stairs, looking for the light switch. He finally hit it, and the light that flooded from above blinded both of them.

"You stay right there!" The shadow suddenly turned into a child wearing pajamas and wielding a pink baseball bat over his left shoulder, not yet ten years old Yugi thought, but he was so caught up on the familiar red eyes, tan skin and wild hair that he couldn't have moved anyway. Those red eyes were currently squinted against the light but slowly opened wide as he took in Yugi's appearance. "Yugi?"

Yugi swallowed around the painful lump in his throat. His voice wasn't as deep, not yet, but the tone, the inflection, the _recognition,_ he hadn't expected to hear his voice again until he...

"Hey, don't cry. I'm not going to hit you or anything. I thought you were a thief!" He set the bat down on the floor and held his hands in front of him to show they were now empty.

"How...just, Atem, how?" Yugi stammered. The air was too hot. He couldn't breathe. He leaned against the wall and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"How do I know your name?" The child pointed to a poster on the wall of the shop they could both see from their position. It was Yugi in a pose with the latest duel disk. "Everyone knows the King of Games, but it was rude of me to just call you by your first name. I don't know you, but I feel like I do." His brow wrinkled and he frowned. He shrugged a moment later and asked, "My name is Atemu though, how do you know me?"

"You reminded me of an old friend," Yugi said.

"Everything okay?" Jou appeared at the top of the steps and had made it halfway down before Yugi could get enough feeling in his body to nod.

"Yes," Atemu said, running past both men and taking the stairs up two at a time. "Nice to meet you, Yugi!"

"Yeah, you too," Atemu was already through the bedroom door, his old bedroom door. Guess that ruled out sleeping in his own bed.

"Are you alright? You look like you've seen a ghost," Jou laughed and slapped him on the back.

Yugi shook his head and raised his hand towards upstairs, "Who what when why?"

"The kids are having a sleepover. He's one of their friends from school. I didn't know you would be back tonight, I thought you wouldn't be here until tomorrow, actually," Jou said.

"I should have called."

"Yes, you should have," Jou studied his face. "Really, though, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Yugi rubbed his wet eyes again. "I'm just gonna crash on the couch."

"You sure? We can trade."

"No, you live here now. I'll just take the couch."

Yugi accepted the pillow and blanket that Jou gave him and collapsed as soon as he was within distance of landing on something soft. He heard Jou go back upstairs after turning off the light and sighed. He didn't want to think about what he had just seen. Didn't want to think about how the ancient Egyptians didn't believe in reincarnation, at least not for their pharaohs. Didn't want to think about how he had felt when Atemu's eyes had widened in recognition.

He eventually fell asleep and dreamed of a pharaoh with red eyes dressed in white and gold.


End file.
